Queen Seraphine flipped her wrist and threw the golden sphere.

The moment it left her hand, it accelerated with terrifying speed. It had barely risen into the air when the compressed force inside it fully detonated. A violent surge of might speared straight through a gap in the storm and slammed into the last man still barely standing.

There was no suspense.

The golden sphere punched through him on the spot—through the front of his chest and out his back. Golden light continued to bloom along the wound’s edges, spreading as it shredded what little power he had left inside.

His body twitched. Whatever was holding him up finally snapped.

Only then did Queen Seraphine speak, her tone flat. "Looks like the legends are true. These people are born with a natural nemesis. For the ones just now... their nemesis should be that storm energy."

Ethan felt a clear jolt run through him.

He’d assumed it was just some unique disaster native to this world. He hadn’t expected there to be a story behind it—something that sounded almost like a rule.

But before he could press her for more, Queen Seraphine moved first.

Her figure swayed lightly—and she was already floating out.

The storm still circled in the sky, throwing碎石, torn flesh, and chaotic energy in every direction.

Queen Seraphine cut straight through it without the slightest hesitation.

She reached out and grabbed—one by one—several energy cores still drifting in the air, closing them in her hand like she was plucking fruit.

Ethan’s expression shifted.

Because that storm... posed no threat to them at all.

Whenever it drifted toward them, it either veered away on its own just before touching their bodies, or it collapsed the instant it came close—never even grazing the energy barrier around them.

The two of them stood inside a zone that should’ve been lethal, yet it was like an invisible rule was automatically avoiding them.

Seeing that, excitement surged in Ethan’s eyes so hard he almost couldn’t hold it down.

If things were really the way he’d just inferred, then what came next would be far simpler.

This world itself contained a natural force capable of threatening Varkharr. They didn’t have to chew through everything inch by inch. If they used the environment, plenty of fights that should’ve cost them dearly would become easy.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when an extremely strange rumble rolled out from the nearby mountain range.

Humm—

RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!

It wasn’t just rocks shifting. It sounded like some enormous living thing was moving deep inside the mountain, slowly dragging itself awake.

Right after that, several chaotic, dense auras rose from within the range—some strong, some weak, crossing and overlapping. They weren’t dead things.

They felt like a whole nest of native creatures, stirred up by the aftermath.

Ethan didn’t hesitate.

Power kicked beneath his feet and he shot forward.

The transparent lightning wings behind him carved a sharp arc through the air, and he dropped into the mountain range.

Before those auras could even close in, his energy erupted first. Transparent lightning spread off him in all directions—like a sudden curtain of thunder slamming down—blanketing the entire range in a blink.

The instant the lightning pressed down, mountain stone exploded and the ground rolled over.

The smaller creatures hiding in cracks, in the mountain’s belly, in the low shadowed pockets—none of them could withstand power on this level. Flesh,碎石, and dust all got thrown up together, then instantly ground into pulp by the next wave of snapping arcs.

Shrill screams started rising everywhere between the peaks, layered under the roar of thunderlight until it made your ears tighten.

"You bastard—this is way too far!"

A savage roar suddenly crushed down over the screams.

Then the mountain’s depths burst apart, and a huge beast charged out—massive, shaped like some kind of wild bull. The moment its body appeared, the space around it warped.

This wasn’t ordinary pressure from a strong enemy.

Every time its muscles tensed, every time its breath lifted, it directly dragged at the nearby energy currents—until even the air around it shuddered with a heavy, grinding vibration.

Ethan’s eyes turned cold.

He lifted a hand and condensed a transparent lightning sphere, the glow compressing fast in his palm as fine arcs snapped across its surface.

The next instant, he whipped his arm.

The lightning sphere slammed straight through the air and struck the bull-creature square in the shoulder.

Bang!

Transparent lightning detonated on contact. Harsh light spread from the impact point, bleaching half its body bright as day. The beast rocked from the hit, and the ground under its feet caved in a notch.

But what truly erupted was the rage in its eyes.

It snapped—completely.

It raised both arms, bringing its thick palms together in front of its chest.

The surrounding energy—already dragged into chaos by its presence—began to converge at high speed. Airflow got crushed toward the space between its hands until a massive energy sphere was forced into existence.

The surface of that sphere wasn’t stable. It churned, swelled, rolled like boiling mud, and the ripples bursting inside it spread outward in rings, pressing fine cracks into the nearby rock walls.

Ethan was about to strike again—

But Queen Seraphine stepped out first.

She didn’t flare her aura. She didn’t make some grand gesture.

She simply raised one finger and lightly tapped toward that huge energy sphere.

In the next instant, the sphere broke.

Not knocked aside. Not pushed back.

The moment her fingertip touched its surface, the entire structure was forcibly dismantled by a higher-tier power.

The high-speed circulation inside the sphere lost balance at once. It collapsed from the center, then unraveled layer by layer. Before any of that energy could explode, it was erased in midair—wiped flat like it had never existed.

The bull-creature froze.

It stared at the spot between its hands where the sphere had been... and its breathing skipped, just once.

It clearly hadn’t imagined its fully charged attack would get punctured that casually—with a single finger.

Queen Seraphine looked at it, her voice cool and absolute.

"Your power doesn’t work on me." Her gaze fell level on the beast. "I’ll give you one piece of advice—kneel and surrender. Or I’ll kill you right now."

The words weren’t loud, but they landed with crushing weight across the mountain range.

The rage on the bull’s face stiffened, replaced by spreading horror. It could feel it—this woman wasn’t bluffing. That one touch was proof enough: the power it took pride in didn’t even qualify to fully take shape in front of her.

"Y-you... who are you?"

Its voice tightened, the earlier ferocity bleeding away by the second.

"In this world, there are almost no one who can break my energy sphere. You’re the first."

Queen Seraphine’s expression didn’t change.

She only flicked her hand, like even looking at it another second would be a waste.

"I’m not here to argue with you," she said flatly. "Do what I just told you. Kneel. Or today is the day you die."

The bull’s breathing grew ragged, its chest heaving. The struggle in its eyes lasted only a heartbeat.

Then its huge body dropped. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Thud.

Its knees hit the ground and shattered a wide patch of rock on impact.

It didn’t even pause. It lowered its head and started bowing—again and again.

"From this moment on, I am your slave," it said, panic thick in its voice. "Please... don’t kill me."